Gavin Brown’s Enterprise

The Independent art fair is apparently all grown up and ready to cement its place of privilege in a new Tribeca location. This year’s event space, Spring Studios, is better known for exclusive fashion and Tribeca Film Festival events, but the organizers believe it is just right for a fair that now considers itself to be mature and ambitious. Aging is perhaps a more appropriate characterization here—this year, the formerly new-blood establishment of the Independent seems as though it is content to coast into retirement.

Do you like art fairs? If yes, you are in luck! If not, get the hell out of New York City this week. Art fairs are multiplying like Gremlins, and mutating as they spawn. We now have specific art fairs for everything: paper, video art, solo projects, Asian art, curator-driven booths, independent artists, dykes, shiny things, boring shows… there’s something for everyone.

Well, the Liberals won the Canadian election, which means Justin Trudeau is the new Prime Minister of Canada. Stephen Harper, a conservative, and now former PM has stepped down. One positive aspect of this election, is that Trudeau has been describing his win as “the power of positive politics”—meaning unlike his conservative opponent, he took the high road and never stooped to vicious attack politics. [The Internet, The New York Times (for those looking to get up to speed), The Toronto Star (for the Canadian news junkie)]

Joe Sheftel is closing his Lower East Side gallery and moving to LA. There, he will work as the director of donor relations at the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles. Artnet notes a number of people with high profile outposts in LA and the scene is certainly expanding there. Are we seeing a shift to the west coast? [Artnet news]

Gavin Brown’s Enterprise is moving to Harlem. Wow! What changes will this art gallery’s move signal for the neighborhood? Perhaps not too many as Gavin Brown already lives in Harlem—now he’s moving his business closer to home. The location of the move will be 461 W. 126th Street, a building listed on Chashama’s website as being home to 42 artist workspaces. What will happen to those studios when GBE moves in? [The New York Times]

Here’s a reason to visit Northridge, California: a 10-story-tall Michael Jackson mural from the early 90s will soon go on view at the Museum of the San Fernando Valley. [Los Angeles Times]

Andrea K. Scott finds enchantment in a fashion-art show in the Lower East Side. Fashion-art hybrid Susan Cianciolo has a retrospective at Bridget Donahue in the form of 30 cardboard box “kits” installed on the floor. That’s pretty minimal for a fashion designer, but for those who want glamour there’s a wall lined with costumes Cianciolo recently designed for a German production of Hamlet. [The New Yorker]

There are so many factual inaccuracies in this Bloomberg feature on how dealers, collectors, and artists use Instagram it’s hard to know where to begin. But surely the most hilariously blooper of the whole segment is the running slideshow of Instagrams taken by “Kadar Radar,” artist Kadar Brock, which includes images of art and his gaming miniatures from a D&D knockoff game called Pathfinder. [Bloomberg Business via Timothy Hutchings]

Sony stopped making replacement parts for Aibo pet robots, which leaves many Japanese owners anxious. This video documenting the connection between the owners and these pets is so worth eight minutes of your time. [The New York Times]

David Liss, the executive director and curator of the Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art (MoCCA), has finally found his institution a new home. It’s a doozy! They’ll occupy the first two-and-a-half floors of a renovated Tower Automotive Building in late 2016 or early 2017 at 158 Sterling Rd. [The Globe and Mail]

Time for round two of massive openings. After over a year, CANADA Gallery finally reopens in its new Broome street space, right across from P!. On Thursday night, Chelsea opens. On Friday night, something’s going down at the Redhook galleries, but we’re not sure what. And tomorrow, we hope Cleopatra’s doubles its benefit goals for artist, curator, and Dependent Fair founder Rose Marcus, to help her pay for major surgery–and so do many talented artists who’ve contributed to her benefit auction. All that, and more, after the jump!

We’re back! It’s been a while since we’ve given you a “We Went To,” but here we are to tell you about the best and worst of what’s on view on the Upper East Side. One fact became clear on this trip: John Baldessari has made a career out of oxymorons.

The Independent Art Fair's great gift: eye contact. With vast ceilings, large windows, and no cubicle-style booths, people aren’t constantly scanning the room behind you to locate James Franco. This means no angry smiles, no high-speed nodding, and no cracked-out active listening. The tone is friendlier. Admission is free, and light is ample. Much of the work is genuinely interesting. Open space literally translates an air of transparency; though this is still no place for an art experience, it feels closer to an exhibition than a department store.